Creature Comforts
by mew-tsubaki
Summary: Oneshot, light slash, pre-relay. Haruka, Makoto, and Rei think nothing of how comfortable Nagisa is in Rei's room. Rei won't for much longer, if Nagisa can help it. *Light T for implied...things.


**Creature Comforts**

A Free! oneshot

by mew-tsubaki

Note: The _Free!_ characters belong to Oji Koji-sensei, not to me. Must. Have. Reigisa. :O Read, review, and enjoy!

- ^-^3

While Haruka and Makoto listened to Rei blather on about barley tea, Nagisa remained stretched out on Rei's bed. He wondered a few things.

How many times had he been over to Rei's place now? He wasn't sure. In the process of becoming friends with Rei, he'd dogged Rei's heels all the time. These days, running in the mornings with Rei was a natural occurrence, just as natural as Nagisa barging in to hang out with Rei.

How well did he know the Ryugazaki household? Well, he knew the layout of the house itself inside and out. As for Rei's family, Rei's parents adored Nagisa. In fact, Nagisa got along extremely well with Mrs. Ryugazaki, much to Rei's chagrin, which only amused Mr. Ryugazaki. Nagisa had yet to meet Rei's big brother, but that was only due to the fact that he was a university student. He'd meet him soon enough.

When had he memorized the book titles on Rei's bookshelf? Now that one was pretty interesting. Nagisa figured it'd happened by accident, since Rei didn't really have hobbies besides studying and, these days, swimming. But books on insects common in their area (Nagisa actually loved reading that one), the various chemistry texts Rei enjoyed (Nagisa hated chemistry, but he liked the appendix on elements and where to find them), the calculus and advanced calculus volumes that always absorbed Rei (honestly, geometry was bad enough!)—Nagisa knew all their titles. He even knew Rei's favorite chapters in some of them.

Nagisa rolled over.

Since when had he been able to identify Rei's scent?

Hmm…

All this thinking was getting to him. Nagisa understood that he, Haruka, and Makoto had come over to check on Rei since Rei being sick had happened too out-of-the-blue after all the Rin talk. But now, as much as he loved Haruka and Makoto, Nagisa kind of wished they would leave in the next few minutes. He wanted to talk to Rei, to have Rei all to himself—

Oh.

Nagisa dwelled on these thoughts as he scrambled for a plan. He didn't want to kick them out noticeably, but he didn't want Rei leaving even to see them to the door. Maybe if he pretended to sleep, they would just write him off as being Nagisa or, at most, it might seem that Nagisa simply wanted to monopolize Rei again. It would mean Rei would have to stay and futilely try to wake up his good friend…

As smart as Rei was, he was so simple to figure out, and Nagisa had to fight a chuckle. No, wait, maybe Rei was just simple for him to figure out alone? Either way, their senpai left, and Rei groaned when he finally realized Nagisa had stolen his bed. "Agh, Nagisa-kun…," Rei mumbled under his breath.

_Just try to wake me, I dare you_, Nagisa thought. But as daring as he was, he knew how hot his face felt, and his heartbeat thudded in his chest like Makoto's heavy footfall.

Rei did no such thing. Instead he cleaned up after them and sat down to do some homework. He left Nagisa exactly where he was.

_Seriously?_ the blond thought, disgruntled. Yet he waited patiently. Rei couldn't be patient with _him_ one-hundred percent of the time. Someone had to give.

Still, when Rei yawned half an hour later, Nagisa couldn't believe that Rei hadn't bothered to wake him in the least! Rei disappeared to take a bath and returned in his pajamas, completely ready to sleep on the floor as he brought with him an extra blanket from the closet in the hallway.

"For crying out loud, Rei-chan!" Nagisa finally burst, sitting bolt upright. He startled Rei.

"Nagisa-kun! You're finally awake?"

"I was never asleep!"

"Oh." Rei pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I honestly believed you'd had too many snacks and had fallen asleep."

"You were just going to let me take over your bed?" For some reason, Nagisa was even more irritated than before.

Rei laughed gently. "Why not? It's all right if you want to stay the night. Your house is close enough for you to get up early to get ready for school, so…"

"That's not the point!"

The taller boy rolled his eyes as he reached above Nagisa to put away his books. "Well, I'm not sure what your point is, Nagisa-kun, so I'm sorry."

Nagisa was about to say "I don't want your apology" when his mind floated back to the most recent question. How was it, freshly out of the bath, that Rei's scent was only stronger than before? Nagisa flopped back down and crossed his arms in front of his eyes.

"Nagisa—whoa!"

The blond had yanked on his arm, and now they lay side by side on the mattress. "I like it here," Nagisa mumbled.

Rei chuckled again. "All right, all right… Then just stay the night. Honestly!"

"No…" Nagisa rolled onto his right side and reached up. He hesitated, but then he turned Rei's face to the left so that they locked eyes. He slid his hand down Rei's arm and into his hand, gripping it. "I like it here," the blond repeated.

It was cute, he learned—Rei's embarrassed face. And the _really_ embarrassed face, not the one they'd all seen before during swim club. Rei opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He kept closing and opening his mouth, and Nagisa was reminded of the mackerel Haruka loved to eat so much.

Still, Nagisa couldn't believe he'd been so brash. Yes, he _was_ the extrovert in their group, but had he really just…? And there was no way Rei hadn't understood _that_ just now! Rei was too bright not to understand. But Nagisa felt so self-conscious that he pulled the collar of his t-shirt over his head, and he hid his face like a turtle withdrawing into its shell. Not cute like rock-hopper penguins at all…!

For one full minute, nothing happened. All Nagisa could feel was his heart pounding wildly in his chest, and Rei's palm pressed against his.

Ah.

Rei hadn't pulled his hand away.

And after one more minute, Nagisa felt Rei shift his hand so that their fingers interlaced.

Rei cleared his throat, but still he said nothing. Then the mattress shifted, and Nagisa could tell that Rei was drawing closer. He wanted to melt away for fear of what might happen, but then he was glad he hadn't disappeared, because he heard Rei chuckle before Rei—through the t-shirt—pecked his forehead.

Nagisa popped his head out, blinking.

The blue-haired boy removed his glasses for the night. "I—I'm glad you l—like it here," he bumbled, his face flushed again.

Nagisa smiled, and it was as if everything were back the way it was…with a few improvements. "Uh-huh," he mumbled, putting Rei's glasses back on him. "Rei…am I still allowed to stay the night?"

He didn't hear Rei's answer as he leaned forward, though…

- ^-^3

**B) YUSH. Imagine what you like at the end, there—please do. ;D I just think Reigisa is that cute couple that is very hot once they get together. Makoharu have been a married couple forever, Goushiba is so masochistic it's borderline S&M *lol*, Amasabe is the funny couple, and Rintori is the couple that's half adorable and half dark/sexy. Yeah… *needs to write some Rintori now* And I dare someone **_**not**_** to write something like this Reigisa when listening to Ellie Goulding's "Starry Eyed"—seriously good timing, Shuffle!**

**Thanks for reading, and please review—especially if you want to see more from me!**

**-mew-tsubaki XD**


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